Lover's Anon: Postmortem
It's been 16 days since we released Lover's Anon and I'm super happy about the turnout!
That said, there are so many things that I felt like as a writer that I could have done better. For one, I was all over the place while writing this so the pacing is severely confusing, as I was trying to learn how to code and use Github while finding out what romance really meant to me.
(Not to mention playing with a visual novel format and being the creative lead for a team where I had zero experience with GUI/UI's, music, voice acting, or soundtracks! I believe the creative lead needs to know the bare minimum basics to lead a team to be able to know the pros and cons of something to successfully convey their thoughts. I don't think that I was able to be an adequate creative lead.)
This was a therapeutic project in which the team chose deliberately to stick to our guns and go for a story and characters that do not have a place in the market. And I'm very happy with this project as a learning experience and as a visual novel. That said, I cannot look back at my writing and say that I'm happy with the tone (as it was never consistent) or the pacing. I also disliked how aggressive the beginning of the game was as it does not draw in people at all.
I also wish I had marketed this game before it came out, but I didn't know how to at the time. Now I understand that even snippets of writings and thoughts can be marketable and that making an "in-progress" page on Itch can help out a lot.
I hope to learn from my mistakes and gain experience from here on out.
Thank you for support,
Jenny Vi Pham
Get Lover's Anonymous: Rehab for Romantics!
Lover's Anonymous: Rehab for Romantics!
Be gay, do crime, and go to therapy!
Status | Released |
Author | Jenny Vi Pham |
Genre | Visual Novel |
Tags | Amare, Cute, Dating Sim, Female Protagonist, Gay, Lesbian, LGBT, Otome, Queer |
Languages | English |
Accessibility | Subtitles |
More posts
- We've hit 100% on Kickstarter!Apr 07, 2022
Comments
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Interesting post-mortem! I will say that you honestly do not need to have experience with any of the skills you felt you lacked—the point of a jam is to gain said experience in a small and manageable way. If you took the time to prepare yourself by reading up on beginner-friendly material and asking questions to people in those fields, you've already done plenty in lieu of personal experience! Also remember that it is a team effort, so the people you bring on board to handle those aspects are bringing their specialized skills and understanding. Anything you communicate in your creative vision as director, they have a duty to assess as viable and work with you on solutions or alternatives that are achievable given the resources and timeframe you all have.
I also would argue hard that your characters do have a place in "the market". Your consumers are real people, as are you. You are not the only person out their with your experiences or interests. Making such content accessible draws those people in who are looking to see such representation, and can even be an exciting surprise to people who took a chance and realized they didn't know such rep could exist. Can it be everyone's cup of tea? No. But I imagine you create to be authentically you, and that quality is magnetic to the people who would appreciate that and will support you for more.
All the best to you and your next endeavor, Jenny!